Some jobs are more dangerous than others, but any workplace environment can be an accident waiting to happen, unless employees are given good safety training and employers take their responsibilities seriously.
Injury lawyers like herrmandherrman.com are all too familiar with what happens when safety fails and an injury occurs, but many of these accidents and injuries could have been avoided in the first place.
Here is a look at some of the most common workplace injuries and some tips on how to prevent them happening in the first place.
Know your limits
Many injuries can be attributed to overexertion, and it is the primary source of a workplace injury according to figures reported by OSHA.
Overexertion covers a multitude of different actions, from carrying, lifting, pulling and pushing and anything else that involves attempting something that is beyond your physical capabilities or simply due to approaching the task in the wrong way.
So many of these injuries could be prevented if workers were given clear training and guidelines when attempting to lift or carry an item and there is also a responsibility on individuals to know their limitations and do what they can to prevent an injury occurring.
If the right lifting equipment or insufficient training is given, then it is surely only a matter of time before an accident happens.
Slips and trips
You may not be surprised to discover that another major source of workplace injuries is slips and trips.
Wet and slippery surfaces or uneven floors that are not properly identified are major culprits when it comes to seeing how many workers end up slipping or tripping. If there is a spillage which is not properly cleaned or even noticed, it probably won’t take long for someone to suffer the consequences and if you have your hands full, it can be all too easy to suffer a fall when you don’t notice that the floor level falls or rises.
There need to be safety guidelines issued to workers and notices as well as appropriate signage to warn workers of any slip, trip or fall hazard.
Working at heights
There are a number of serious and even fatal falls that happen in workplaces around the country every year, when a worker suffers a fall from a height.
Carrying out work from an elevated area such as a roof or while you are on a ladder, requires a heightened degree of caution and diligence. There are a variety of scenarios that cause an accident to happen such as when the equipment you are using is faulty and doesn’t secure you properly, as well as issues such as a lack of personal protection gear, which can soon make the accident even more damaging than it already is.
These are just a couple of examples, and when you add in other regularly reported incidents such as machine entanglement and repetitive motion injuries, it should be clear that the workplace has the potential to be a dangerous place, unless both employer and employee show a healthy respect for safety.
Felix Raylie is a Injury, Illness and Wellbeing Coordinator who has been in this role for several years. He writes on the topic of safety and injury in the workplace for a growing online audience.
